Bill Hartzer on Search, Marketing, Tech, and Domains.

How I Met a Celebrity by Using Craigslist

November 23, 2009 By Bill Hartzer

Over this past weekend, my wife and I had the pleasure of a brief third visit from a real, honest-to-goodness, “household name” celebrity. This time, it was this celebrity’s husband visiting our home. And to think, it all started with a simple Craiglist ad, one that I placed on the Dallas Craigslist about two months ago.

First off, I’m not going to go into great detail about the celebrity (or her husband), not only to protect them, but because who they are really isn’t my point here. All I am going to say is that they’re household names, and most likely you have seen something that they’ve been involved with. And yes, this celebrity is in Wikipedia, tv.com and in IMDB. If you know me well, you probably know who this person and her husband is by now, but really that’s not the point.

It all started with a knock at my door. I was busy working in the house, and a good friend of mine (who lives a few miles down the road), came by and visited for a few minutes. He knew that we have a few chickens (laying hens) for our own personal use (we generally don’t sell them, just eat the eggs), and we have bought a few chickens from him before. Ron said that he would gladly bring them over, and a few hours later he did. After a few days, my wife and I decided that they weren’t getting along very well with the laying hens we have (they’re a different breed of chicken). So, my wife said “get rid of those chickens.”

Not telling my wife, I placed a simple ad on Craigslist. I detailed them rather well, what breed of chicken they were, and a few other qualities. And I was lazy this time. I didn’t even take the time to take a photo of one of these chickens, which goes against everything I know about Craiglist. If you ever post something on Craiglist for sale, always add a photo of whatever you’re selling, because that increases the chances that you’ll sell it, by at least 1000 percent.

The phone rang. My wife answered, talked to the pleasant-sounding man on the end of the line, and made arrangements to take the chickens to him on a Saturday morning. Then she got off the phone, came to find me, and yelled, “you didn’t tell me you were putting them on Craiglist. Well, we sold them, and we have to go up to their house on Saturday.” She had written everything down, even the guy’s phone number, address, and his name. Being the internet techno geek that I am, I “googled” his name. Then we found out who this man was, who his wife was, and everything from there fell into place.

We loaded up and brought the chickens to one of their homes, where they already had a few roosters, a pair of swans, and a few ducks on their pond. We spent at least an hour there, and even ended up, a few weeks later, bring them some more chickens. And just this weekend, he came by our house this time; to pick up a few guineas that we had.

So, what’s my point?
Well, my point here is that celebrities are real people, just like you and me. They go to the grocery store. They go to Walmart. They browse the web. And yes, they even browse sites like Craigslist, looking for a good deal on something. So, whether it’s an ipod, a car, or even a horse or goat, and you’re looking to sell or buy it, try Craigslist. And oh yeah, if you’re honest with whatever you’re buying or selling, you might even have a chance at meeting an honest-to-goodness, down to earth, real celebrity.